Need help with remotoring the smaller Mantua old vintage 0-4- 0and 0-6-0 engines Anyone have experience with the 754 kit from Dan's Yardbird shop? Seems the bolts loosen with time and just unthread themselves.... Also NWSL remotoring requires lots of filing and still having issues with the drive mechanism not running smoothly- surely does not coast down the track...what can i do to make these little old engines really realistic and smooth? I really love them and spend a lot of time upgrading them . Any fotos of how to do things would really help. Thanks for helping out a new guy. PS I love Sergent couplers - how come they are not advertised very much- they are realistic and work fine though not automatically .
The young guys won't know how to make these things operate and will tell you to get the latest this & that...BUT, Mantua locos can be made to run as well as any "new" locos from the companies which make them in China. First, you will want to make sure that the mechanism is free of any binds...roll it along without the motor installed to check for binds. If you can feel the mechanism rolling well, it is time to install the motor. Years ago, Mantua made a "retrofit" kit with a flat can motor, worm gear installed, and a motor cradle to mount the new motor. Not finding them, the old open frame 5 pole motor can be "massaged" so it will run as sweet as most new motors,. Simple things like adjusting the motor brush springs and "polishing" the commutator with fine emery paper can make a world of difference. These old locos can be made to run as well as the latest offerings and when you finish the job, you will have something to be proud of. The oldies are indeed goodies. On the bolts getting loose, try some LOC TITE in the threads, it works great. Woodie
TY Woodie- since you seem to know alot about these vintge models do you know of any forum /site that really deals with us old kit rebuilders? i love these kits they are tought o build but I add every detail I can find including Sergent couplers and bit by bit they look very good indeed.... Any ideas are very welcome MDF - loving the art of old time modeling
I wish I knew about any forums for "old time" kits, but I don't. I do not have any old stuff myself, not now, I have been in the hobby for over 50 years now and have built probably most of the old time kit locos. They are all very straightforward and with just a little care can be made to run as well as today's RTR "green box" engines. If you are considering using dcc, I believe there are some secoders available that won't turn to smoke with the old motors. Since you want to remoter the old jobs, you might search out available sources. Be prepared to do considerable cutting on frames, etc. to fit a new motor, but it is really just basic skills that are pretty much lost today. I might advise getting an old (and cheap) kit and finding the "right" motor and jumping right in. There is no better teacher than experience. Good luck. Woodie
Parts I have stuff from Yadbird Trains. Good stuff. I just use a small dab of blue thread locker on parts and not problem with stuff coming loose. The blue thread locker is not permanent. The red is. When I was a machine mechanic, I used both thread lockers a lot and found the blue very useful for my locomotives. NWSL stuff, you have to know how to use it. Not plug and play. Was never intended to be. I have remotored and regeared locos using the NWSL stuff. NWSL just remotored and regeared a MDC all metal 4-4-2 for me. I use a bed of bath caulk for mounting the motor and fine tune the gear lash before the caulk sets up. Also makes for a quiet motor. Some times I used the NWSL thin bronze thrust washers to eliminate gear slop or driver slop. It is a well know fact you have to fine tune any motor and gear installations. Rich
Yardbird trains. I have some Mantua stuff from him. I get a lot of loco crew figures from him. http://yardbirdtrains.com/index.htm NWSL http://www.nwsl.com/ I deal with both and they do answer email. Rich
TY for info - I will keep at it- will use blue thread lock and do the silastic embedding approach and the other suggestions Thanks again for all the responses MDF
Just don't use the greenbiggrin:. If you do, it'll never come apart again. This is an excellent thread. I have some old Mantua/Tyco engines that I intend to use again in the future. There's some very helpful information here including the availability of decoders??? Cool.
